We created this site to share resources, let you know when we might be speaking in your area, and have an ongoing conversation about teaching with text sets in your classroom.

About Us

Mary
Ann received her doctorate in English Education from Teachers College,
Columbia University and teaches courses in content area literacy and
children's and young adult literature, including a specialized course in
nonfiction literature for children and young adults, at Lesley
University. She spent over a decade teaching English-Language Arts in
public middle and high schools in the New York City area and the
seacoast of New Hampshire, and courses in children's and
young adult literature at the undergraduate and graduate level at Teachers College and Manhattan College. She
has served as a member of the Massachusetts English-Language Arts
Curriculum Frameworks Review Panel, as a Literacy Policy Advocate for
the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and as a State
Representative for the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (ALAN).
Her publication credits include: English Journal, The Dragon Lode, Language Arts and The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature. She is co-editor and co-author of "The Classroom Bookshelf" blog with Erika Thulin Dawes and Grace Enriquez and co-author of the "Nonfiction and the Common Core" column for School Library Journal's "Curriculum Connections" newsletter with Myra Zarnowski and Marc Aronson. Mary Ann has also been a guest on public radio. With Erika, she is co-author of Teaching with Text Sets.

Erika
received her doctorate in Curriculum and Teaching from Teachers
College, Columbia University. She teaches a variety of literacy courses
at Lesley University, including courses on writing instruction, general
literacy methods, early childhood literacy, and literature for children
and young adults. Erika has worked as a classroom teacher, reading
specialist, and literacy supervisor on Cape Cod and in New Jersey. In
addition to publishing articles in Language Arts,
Erika has authored response guides to award winning children’s
literature in connection with her work with Dr. Barbara Kiefer of Ohio
State University on the textbook Charlotte Huck’s Children’s Literature. She has also co-authored a textbook on writing instruction titled Learning to Write with Purpose: Effective Instruction Grades 4-8 with Lesley University colleagues. She is co-editor and co-author of "The Classroom Bookshelf" blog with Mary Ann Cappiello and Grace Enriquez. With Mary Ann, Erika is co-author of Teaching with Text Sets.